Generative points at whatever can bring new things into being. Picture a seed rather than a shelf: a shelf holds what already exists, a seed makes more of it. That one picture stretches a long way. It covers a force in nature, a set of grammar rules that can spin out every correct sentence of a language, a computer system that sentences of its own, and an older, careful word for the part of the body that makes new life.
The packet's etymology tree runs from Latin genus ('kind, birth') and the verb genero ('to bring forth'), through Latin -ivus, Old French -if and Middle English generatyve, into English generative. The 'bringing forth' in genero is still exactly what the modern word points at.
證據包裡的字源樹是：拉丁文 genus（種、出身）和動詞 genero（生出），經拉丁字尾 -īvus、古法文 -if、中古英文 generatyve，才成為英文的 generative。genero 的「生出」這個意思，今天還原封不動留在字裡。
Wiktionary entry supplied in the evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:314975541), etymology_text field.
Three branches
會生出新東西的
這一家就是種子本身的意思，其他用法都從這裡分出去。
adjective · C1
Able to make or bring new things into being. A generative force, process or system is one that produces something that was not there before, rather than only storing or handling what already exists.
能產生的；生成的
語言學裡的生成學派
同一顆種子換成規則：規則是種子，句子是長出來的東西。
adjective · C2
In the fixed terms 'generative grammar', 'generative linguistics' and 'generative phonology': describing a way of studying a language by writing rules that can produce every correct sentence of that language.
生成（語法／語言學）的
舊書裡的委婉說法：生殖
生出來的東西換成下一代，作者再用這個字把話講得含蓄一點。
adjective · C2
Relating to producing young: an older, careful way of naming the parts of the body that make babies, used when a writer prefers not to name them directly.
生殖的（委婉用法）